Let It Be…Naked

L et It Be has been documented on film and record. The recording sessions that resulted in the album have been written about in countless articles and books. So why Naked ? The obvious answer is that there’s no time like the present to continue mining Beatles gold. When Capitol Records released the Beatles No.1 just prior to the holidays in 2000, the disc went to number 1 on the charts and sat there. Nothing says Hanukah or Christmas for a record executive like having a top-selling album that only required cleaning up some old tapes and slapping a new jacket on the package. 

Boomers are still a viable force in the marketplace, especially when is comes to the dwindling sales of record companies. After all it isn’t 17-year-olds who are buying all those re-mastered versions of Dylan, Joplin, and the Airplane. It is actually amazing how little of the vast collection of alternate takes and other material recorded by the Beatles hasn’t been released. While every record company is tripping over themselves to re-master and re-release material under banners such as Essential and The Very Best Of, Capitol Records has yet to re-master one of the Beatles’ original albums.  

Let It Be grew out of the Fab Four’s desire to get back to basics. The attempt was to be entitled Get Back and was meant to be spontaneous and under-produced. It was only two years previous that the group had set the rock world on its ear with the multi-layered Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band . The Fab Four, fragmenting since manager Brian Epstein’s death in August 1967, felt that the Get Back sessions would be a constructive way of mending the band. The idea of doing a documentary of the recording sessions was also planned. Unfortunately, the plan misfired. The resulting film, which hasn’t been available for over a decade, showed the group more fragmented than fans ever thought possible. The Beatles eventually decided to shelve the sessions and moved on to recording new material that eventually became Abbey Road , the group’s final studio album. Interestingly, 12 of the songs that eventually made their way on to Abbey Road were first introduced and worked on during the Get Back sessions. 

In January 1970, the year after the Get Back sessions were recorded, the tapes were given to Phil Spector to sort through and assemble. The result was Let It Be , an album that wasn’t the home run most had come to expect of the Beatles, but a mighty fine album nonetheless. The album does contain the title track, “Get Back” and “Across The Universe.” That alone puts it head and shoulders over anything currently on the charts. It was specifically Spector’s sweet strings and hymnal vocal touches that McCartney objected to, which created a cloud that hung over the album for years. 

Thirty-three years after its initial release, Let It Be finally got the reworking Paul wanted. The result is a mixed bag for Beatle aficionados. Let It Be…Naked not only removes all of Spector’s production, but also the songs sequence has been changed as well. The re-worked album does make interesting listening for fans, including those not old enough to remember the many bootlegged versions of the sessions that surfaced before Let It Be was officially released in May 1970. The music is sparse and as pared down as one could get. The title track still retains the power of redemption and that all things are possible, even minus the Wagnerian Spector flourishes. “The Long And Winding Road” is leaner and not nearly as syrupy and sappy as its original mix. All of the material benefits from 30 years of technology. The songs are cleaner and have a punch and presence that just wasn’t sonically available back in the days of eight-track analog recording. George’s slide guitar work on “For You Blue” swings harder and the chosen mix gives Ringo’s drums far more snap than the original. The album’s standout piece is “One After 909.” While Naked uses original takes, the re-mastering benefits the song by adding an extra kick to the proceedings. 

The album’s downside is the total lack of documentation of which takes were used on the revamped Naked . While this may seem like nitpicking, Beatle musicologist, Mark Lewisohn put out a book years ago detailing nearly every take of those sessions. It certainly wouldn’t have been that difficult to include the date of the recording and its take number in the multi-page booklet whose text is primarily comprised of dialogue snippets of the Fab Four and Michael Lindsey-Hogg, director of the film Let It Be . 

Unfortunately the decision was also made not to include “Maggie Mae” and “Dig It.” While these were both brief and unfinished songs their inclusion, as well as some also removed studio banter on the original album, lent a free form feel to the proceedings that the newer version lacks. Another personal gripe is the omission of the “Bring It On Home To Me” jam that is evident in the film and never released on record, tape, or CD. A bonus disc is included that is about as entertaining as listening to “Revolution No. 9” in its entirety without the proper mind altering substances that made the cut seem so profound all those years ago. “Fly On The Wall” is a 21-minute snore fest. One can only imagine what prompted its inclusion in this day and age of “just say no.” On the plus side “Don’t Let Me Down,” recorded during the sessions but omitted from the original, has been restored.